All posts tagged campaign songs

A couple of weeks ago an ad attacking Republican presidential nominee candidate Mitt Romney appeared. Then, pretty quickly, all trace of it disappeared. The ad was pulled because it used Cyndi Lauper’s ‘True Colors‘ without her permission. She accordingly had “her people” remove it.

Republicans can’t seem to keep their mitts off the works of unsympathetic musicians: last year Tom Petty had to get confrontational to avoid now pulled-out candidate Michele Bachmann using his ‘American Girl‘ during her campaign launch. Do these people even vaguely listen to the lyrics? (By people I mean the candidates’ aides). ‘American Girl’ is…well, it’s not very patriotic. It opens thus:

Well she was an American GirlRaised on promisesShe couldn’t help thinking that there was A little more to life, somewhere elseAfter all it was a great big worldWith lots of places to run to

More on the use of music in electoral campaigns in future posts. I’ll even try to find some positive instances. Other than perhaps Bill Clinton’s use of ‘Don’t Stop’ nothing’s springing to mind, so please do make suggestions.